1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structured data management system which processes structured electronic data, and to a computer-readable storage medium which stores a structured data management program which causes a computer to process structured electronic data. More particularly, the present invention relates to a structured data management system which supports such a processing environment where a plurality of structured data objects are associated with each other. Further, the present invention relates to a computer-readable medium which stores a structured data management program designed to make a computer perform the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, the efforts to develop information systems to aid various business activities in an enterprise have been directed toward the support of routine works that do not change very much with time. In reality, however, there is no business that can sustain without changes, and the user needs to constantly grow in sophistication. System development usually starts with the analysis and modeling of current business processes, and time-consuming development work follows them. This conventional way of system development, however, would sometimes result in a big disappointment of users because their requirements vary with time. The system becomes out-of-date soon after its deployment, or the obsolescence begins even at the moment when its development is started.
Additionally, the basic design of conventional business support systems do not allow for possible changes in the real-life business operations. Therefore, the data storage structure and behavioral definitions of data objects (i.e., definitions of how to process given data objects) are integrated in the applications as part of their system functions. Such conventional business support systems have difficulty in adapting themselves to new user requirements that stem from ever-changing business environments. As a result, conventional systems often require the conversion of a large amount of corporate information assets into a new data structure.
To solve the above problems, new integrated software suites called the "Enterprise Resource Planning" (ERP) packages have been developed. This type of software package offers various business process models in the form of software components having parameterized behavior models. This makes it possible to develop a desired system by simply combining software components and setting their parameters in accordance with the user's business environment.
The above integrated software packages, however, require all business processes to be analyzed and set up at a very early stage of development, and therefore, the system engineers must have deep knowledge about both ERP tools and real-world business activities. This leads to another problem that it takes much time to start up the system. In order to keep up with ever-changing business operations and continuously provide effective support to the user, it is necessary to dynamically change, expand, and/or consolidate the system in the course of operations, by combining the best-suited technologies in a timely manner. Unfortunately, the existing ERP packages are lacking in this capability.
No matter how versatile the software components are, actual business activities have a unique personality all their own. A business support system constructed with such components would require the users to adapt themselves to the system. This situation, however, seems to get things the wrong way around.
Furthermore, data models offered by system vendors are not flexible. Their fundamental features are fixed, and user-definable part is limited. Additionally, it is hard to know the relationships between data items and process definitions. As a matter of fact, it is impossible for the users to alter the predefined data structures.
Meanwhile, there are business support packages called "workflow," which permits each work to be modeled in accordance with the user's intention. These types of packages, however, have the same deficiencies as existing ERP packages have. That is, everything should be defined at an initial stage; once they are deployed, it is impossible to change them, or complex procedures are required to do it. In addition, the scope of workflow packages is limited to a small area of business activities, and it is not a practical approach to apply them to an entire business operation.
Another problem with the ERP and workflow packages is the difficulty in customizing their standard definitions of business processes or organizational structures. One reason for this is that the definitions are formulated through a graphical user interface (GUI) and their internal representation is hidden from the user. Therefore, it is hard for the user to add a new data structure, or to define links to other systems.
In summary, conventional tools are not suitable for the development and operations of a business support system for non-routine tasks that often change over time. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce manual operations to process non-automated tasks. In addition, the user has to enter the same data over and over, since conventional system tools are unable to effectively reuse the legacy information.